Lenta, the Russian hypermarket chain that began trading on the London stock exchange last Friday, lost £400 million of its market value in the two days after its debut.
Russia's second biggest hypermarket chain slumped as much as 3.4% on the first day of trading in London after selling shares at the bottom of its $10-$11 price range. Even before Monday they had managed to fall 14.2% to $8.45. Unconditional dealings for Lenta begin today in London.
Concerns over Russia's policy toward Ukraine is being touted as the reason why investors chose to keep away from Lenta stock.
Other consumer-focused IPOs are expected, such as children's goods retailer Detsky Mir, owned by oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema, corporate and individual loans bank Credit Bank of Moscow and German retailer Metro AG's Russian cash-and-carry business.
Lenta said the total size of the offering was $952 million, or $1.1 billion if an over-allotment option was exercised in full. That would have given the company a market value of $4.3 billion.
© 2014 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
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